Hundreds of pages of documents provided to Gun Owners of America from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, revealed that ATF agents are telling their FBI counterparts, to daily “monitor” specific people through the federal background system, even when they [lawfully] purchase guns.
“They are basically tracking—without a warrant—every gun purchase by these people,” told The Epoch Times, Rob Olson, an attorney for Gun Owners of America (GOA),“There’s no legal process here. At best, this is highly questionable, if not outright unlawful.”
That means they are monitoring people who buy guns but have not broken the law, any law. The people put in the “NICS Monitoring Services,” are never notified and seemingly have no way to appeal being watched without a warrant.
The ATF is purposely misusing the FBI’s background check system, so that they can keep gun purchase records that would otherwise, be destroyed. Federal law dictates NICS records for completed, approved gun purchases must be deleted from the government database [within] 24 hours.
This takes daily monitoring by the FBI to keep the suspects under watch, for legally buying a gun for as long as the ATF agent wants. There is no legal limit on the number or monetary value of guns that can be bought. Nevertheless, a black woman in Arizona was “NICS flag approved” for being a possible straw purchaser because the ATF agent was concerned with her income and her number of purchases. You read that right.
It’s unclear how the ATF agent knew the woman’s income, but it obviously involves the IRS. “Let’s expedite the considering her criminal history and considering 9mm’s are weapons of choice for the cartel,” the special agent emailed NICS on Aug. 6, 2020. Much of the rest of the document is however redacted.
What this means is that federal agencies are pooling and using their inexhaustible resources, paid by our taxes, to engage in surveillance of Americans not guilty of braking any law.
It reminds me of the relentless and intrusive surveillance, socialist totalitarian regimes of the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) unleashed upon their citizenry using government agencies. Or today’s China, North Korea, Cuba, or Venezuela for that matter.
In these regimes, every citizen is perceived by the authorities, as a criminal. Why? Because everything is illegal. And anyone will eventually break the law, any law, intentionally or inadvertently. This includes your thoughts, your words, and perceived inconsistencies in your expected behavior. Yes, this is what we are heading to.